Chet Gresham

Targets and Touches

Week 7 Target Watch: NFC

Welcome to the NFC targets and touches for Week 7 of the NFL season. The AFC portion will be up tomorrow night, so be sure to camp outside Rotoworld HQ awaiting its release. And if you are new to the column let me take you through a quick look at how I set things up. You'll see something like this, "Larry Fitzgerald: 14-5-6-9-6-12 (52)", which just means that Fitzgerald had 14 targets in Week 1, 5 targets in Week 2, 6 in Week 3, 9 in Week 4, 6 in Week 5 and 12 in Week 6 for a total of 52. It’s as easy as following me on Twitter.

Editor's Note: Rotoworld's partner FanDuel is hosting a one-week $300,000 Fantasy Football league for Week 7. It's $25 to join and first prize is $25,000. Starts Sunday at 1pm ET. Here's the link.

Here are the target leaders for both the AFC and NFC per game. Now that we are into the byes, total numbers get a little skewed, so for the true leaders I’ll usually look at per game stats. Here are the players with eight or more targets per game, no matter how many games they’ve played.

Larry Fitzgerald had the most targets he’s seen since Week 1 and this coming on a day when it looked as if he might not even play. Overall this was a good game for the Cardinals fantasy starters. Fitzgerald got his on a 75-yard catch and run touchdown (think Super Bowl XLIII). Michael Floyd finally found the end zone and caught five of six targets for 44 yards. He now has five receptions in each of his last three games. Rob Housler finally did more than nothing and had his most targets and receptions on the season with five and four, while Andre Roberts continued to lose targets to Housler and prove a non-factor once again. This all comes from an overly inconsistent Carson Palmer, but thankfully a pass happy Carson Palmer. He wasn’t very good, especially early in the game, but 41 pass attempts, 298 yards and two touchdowns is a good bulk sum for the offensive players to get their fantasy points.

Andre Ellington continues his great play on around half of the snaps. This week in a heavy passing game, he had 32 snaps to Rashard Mendenhall’s 23 and his high in receptions, rushing yards, total yards and fantasy points, as he caught all five of his targets, rushed seven times for 56 yards and a touchdown and totaled 92 yards. Mendenhall continues to do a good job as an early down back with a bad offensive line, but Ellington fits the offense and their personnel much better.

Of course the biggest news to come out for the Falcons is the foot injury to Julio Jones. It looks like he will miss the season unless Magneto can take care of those screws in his foot. So the 1-4 Falcons now are without the player Matt Ryan had targeted 59 times, or in other words, 27% of his passes. With Roddy White Black Knighting it all over the field, he may never be 100% again and Tony Gonzalez gets his work by his “savvy veteran play,” i.e. he’s old and slow, but can catch anything within arm's reach. But he can be stopped if teams don’t have to double up Jones. You can see what happened to the Lions last week without Calvin Johnson, Jones is that caliber of player. So don’t expect any one player to just explode with Jones gone. Harry Douglas of course will get more snaps and targets, but even with Roddy White playing on a stump, Douglas was unable to do much with Jones getting extra attention and White getting very few targets. He’s worth a grab for a bye week filler, but he’ll be inconsistent in an inconsistent offense.

With the bye week coming up hopefully Roddy White can get some mandatory rest for his ankle and hamstring and pridefulness. In his first five games of the season, which he played in every single one with a high ankle sprain, he caught 22 passes for 129 yards and no touchdowns. That’s 2.8 receptions and 25.8 yards per game. And for some reason the Falcons are 1-4 during this stretch. I know there is more to their record than one player, but him sitting out the first four weeks to get healthy makes too much sense. Add to that his hamstring injury that probably wasn’t helped by him compensating for his ankle and you have a bad cluster of events.

Drew Davis will most likely become the slot receiver in three receiver sets with White and Douglas on the outside. Douglas won’t command the attention from Ryan that Jones or White does, so Davis could see enough looks to be worthwhile in deep leagues.

This game didn’t call for much exertion by the Panthers as they were up 14-3 at half and 28-3 to start the 4th quarter. Cam Newton had a big game, but on the whole, the team leaned on the short passing and running game. Newton’s one long pass of the game went to Brandon LaFell for a 79-yard touchdown, helped by Ted Ginn’s great block.

Steve Smith got his second touchdown of the year on a goal line crossing route. It was almost a carbon copy of the pass he dropped in Arizona, so that is good news for his confidence (like Smith ever needs a confidence boost). But with Newton completing 20-of-28 passes for 242 yards (including the 79 yarder) there weren’t many passing yards to go around and Smith, Ginn and Greg Olsen didn’t have many chances to put up stats.

DeAngelo Williams had a good game with 17 rushing attempts for 64 yards and five receptions on five targets for 53 yards. The uptick in targets and receptions is great news for his fantasy outlook, especially since we once again watched as someone else cashed in his hard work near the goal line. Mike Tolbert took a shovel pass for a 10-yard touchdown and ran another in from one yard out, while Cam Newton ran one in for seven yards. Williams has 488 total yards and zero touchdowns. The closest running back to him in total yardage with no touchdowns is Ronnie Hillman with 271 yards. That’s a kick in the gut.

This was Brandon Marshall’s make-up game for Alshon Jeffery breaking the Bears single game record for receiving yards last week. He complained a bit about his role in the offense after that game and then blew up the following game. The squeaky wheel syndrome as some call it (me mainly) looked to work, but in reality he didn’t see any more targets than usual, he just played very well. Alshon Jeffery had a down game, just catching one of five targets, but he was very close to having a much bigger game on a few of those long passes on which he had a step. So I’m taking this game as affirmation that both have good upside, but Marshall is still the go to guy.

Martellus Bennett had a productive game in which he caught six of seven targets for 68 yards, with five of those receptions going for first downs. Of course that matters little in fantasyland, but maybe it should. He also hasn’t seen the end zone after catching three touchdowns in the first two weeks. He had four red zone targets in those two games and six over the last four. That’s actually pretty good, so I’m not too worried. He’ll find the end zone more going forward.

Matt Forte had another good game, but his three touchdowns on the season are a little disappointing. But we knew from the start that he wasn’t going to lead teams to victory through touchdowns. He’s fourth in total yards for running backs and second in receptions. That’s where he butters his biscuit.

This game didn’t go like many fantasy players had hoped as Tony Romo finished with less fantasy points than Matt Flynn did when he faced Washington. With two rushing touchdowns (one for DeMarco Murray who was later injured and one for his backup Joseph Randle) and a punt return touchdown from Dwayne Harris, there just weren’t many fantasy points to go around.

Cole Beasley saw his most work of the season as Washington did their best to take the deep pass away. This allowed for the Cowboys to run the ball and complete shorter passes, but slowed down the passing game. Terrance Williams caught Romo's lone touchdown pass and saw two more snaps than Miles Austin. Then after the game Coach Garrett wasn't happy with how Austin looked coming off his hamstring injury. Nothing is set in stone, but I think Williams gives them the best chance to win and we may be seeing a changing of the guard.

With Calvin Johnson hurting and having his snaps limited (39-of-76), Kris Durham once again saw a healthy number of targets and this time he caught quite a few of them, 8-of-13 for 83 yards to be exact. But Reggie Bush was again the catalyst for the offense as he totaled 135 yards and a touchdown.

The finisher for the day was Big Joe Fauria. At six foot seven, 255 pounds, he is quite a large target in the red zone. And with Tony Scheffler out for this game, Fauria saw the most snaps of his young career, 29, but only had three targets, which he caught for three touchdowns. The thing is, each target was contested and Fauria went up and made great catches on all three. The guy can play football and we know what Brandon Pettigrew and Tony Scheffler can do, so I sure hope we continue to see Fauria see time on the field.

The Packers came out on top in this one, but lost their number one targeted receiver in the process. Aaron Rodgers saved his day and the game with a beautiful touchdown pass to Jordy Nelson, but for the most part this game was ugly and injury riddled for the Packers. The true star was Eddie Lacy who rushed 23 times for 120 yards against a stout Ravens defense. With Randall Cobb out until Week 15, Lacy is going to be called on to produce.

Once Cobb and James Jones went down it became Jarrett Boykin’s job as he had six targets and saw 58-of-69 snaps. Unfortunately it didn’t go too well as he had a couple bad drops and caught just one of his six targets. Hopefully the stage won’t be too big for him next week with a week of practice and knowing he’s going to be counted on.

The Vikings barely showed up to their 35-10 beat down at home from the Panthers in Week 6. It was a poor display by the home team led by interim quarterback Matt Cassel, who didn’t look like he really wanted to be there. And with Josh Freeman most likely starting next week, the target numbers aren’t that indicative as to what will happen from here on out.

It was good to see Kyle Rudolph get the most targets he’s had this season, including a garbage time touchdown. Amazingly his nine receptions for 97 yards were two more receptions and 30 more yards than he’s ever had in a game.

Welcome to the NFC targets and touches for Week 7 of the NFL season. The AFC portion will be up tomorrow night, so be sure to camp outside Rotoworld HQ awaiting its release. And if you are new to the column let me take you through a quick look at how I set things up. You'll see something like this, "Larry Fitzgerald: 14-5-6-9-6-12 (52)", which just means that Fitzgerald had 14 targets in Week 1, 5 targets in Week 2, 6 in Week 3, 9 in Week 4, 6 in Week 5 and 12 in Week 6 for a total of 52. It’s as easy as following me on Twitter.

Editor's Note: Rotoworld's partner FanDuel is hosting a one-week $300,000 Fantasy Football league for Week 7. It's $25 to join and first prize is $25,000. Starts Sunday at 1pm ET. Here's the link.

Here are the target leaders for both the AFC and NFC per game. Now that we are into the byes, total numbers get a little skewed, so for the true leaders I’ll usually look at per game stats. Here are the players with eight or more targets per game, no matter how many games they’ve played.

Larry Fitzgerald had the most targets he’s seen since Week 1 and this coming on a day when it looked as if he might not even play. Overall this was a good game for the Cardinals fantasy starters. Fitzgerald got his on a 75-yard catch and run touchdown (think Super Bowl XLIII). Michael Floyd finally found the end zone and caught five of six targets for 44 yards. He now has five receptions in each of his last three games. Rob Housler finally did more than nothing and had his most targets and receptions on the season with five and four, while Andre Roberts continued to lose targets to Housler and prove a non-factor once again. This all comes from an overly inconsistent Carson Palmer, but thankfully a pass happy Carson Palmer. He wasn’t very good, especially early in the game, but 41 pass attempts, 298 yards and two touchdowns is a good bulk sum for the offensive players to get their fantasy points.

Andre Ellington continues his great play on around half of the snaps. This week in a heavy passing game, he had 32 snaps to Rashard Mendenhall’s 23 and his high in receptions, rushing yards, total yards and fantasy points, as he caught all five of his targets, rushed seven times for 56 yards and a touchdown and totaled 92 yards. Mendenhall continues to do a good job as an early down back with a bad offensive line, but Ellington fits the offense and their personnel much better.

Of course the biggest news to come out for the Falcons is the foot injury to Julio Jones. It looks like he will miss the season unless Magneto can take care of those screws in his foot. So the 1-4 Falcons now are without the player Matt Ryan had targeted 59 times, or in other words, 27% of his passes. With Roddy White Black Knighting it all over the field, he may never be 100% again and Tony Gonzalez gets his work by his “savvy veteran play,” i.e. he’s old and slow, but can catch anything within arm's reach. But he can be stopped if teams don’t have to double up Jones. You can see what happened to the Lions last week without Calvin Johnson, Jones is that caliber of player. So don’t expect any one player to just explode with Jones gone. Harry Douglas of course will get more snaps and targets, but even with Roddy White playing on a stump, Douglas was unable to do much with Jones getting extra attention and White getting very few targets. He’s worth a grab for a bye week filler, but he’ll be inconsistent in an inconsistent offense.

With the bye week coming up hopefully Roddy White can get some mandatory rest for his ankle and hamstring and pridefulness. In his first five games of the season, which he played in every single one with a high ankle sprain, he caught 22 passes for 129 yards and no touchdowns. That’s 2.8 receptions and 25.8 yards per game. And for some reason the Falcons are 1-4 during this stretch. I know there is more to their record than one player, but him sitting out the first four weeks to get healthy makes too much sense. Add to that his hamstring injury that probably wasn’t helped by him compensating for his ankle and you have a bad cluster of events.

Drew Davis will most likely become the slot receiver in three receiver sets with White and Douglas on the outside. Douglas won’t command the attention from Ryan that Jones or White does, so Davis could see enough looks to be worthwhile in deep leagues.

This game didn’t call for much exertion by the Panthers as they were up 14-3 at half and 28-3 to start the 4th quarter. Cam Newton had a big game, but on the whole, the team leaned on the short passing and running game. Newton’s one long pass of the game went to Brandon LaFell for a 79-yard touchdown, helped by Ted Ginn’s great block.

Steve Smith got his second touchdown of the year on a goal line crossing route. It was almost a carbon copy of the pass he dropped in Arizona, so that is good news for his confidence (like Smith ever needs a confidence boost). But with Newton completing 20-of-28 passes for 242 yards (including the 79 yarder) there weren’t many passing yards to go around and Smith, Ginn and Greg Olsen didn’t have many chances to put up stats.

DeAngelo Williams had a good game with 17 rushing attempts for 64 yards and five receptions on five targets for 53 yards. The uptick in targets and receptions is great news for his fantasy outlook, especially since we once again watched as someone else cashed in his hard work near the goal line. Mike Tolbert took a shovel pass for a 10-yard touchdown and ran another in from one yard out, while Cam Newton ran one in for seven yards. Williams has 488 total yards and zero touchdowns. The closest running back to him in total yardage with no touchdowns is Ronnie Hillman with 271 yards. That’s a kick in the gut.

This was Brandon Marshall’s make-up game for Alshon Jeffery breaking the Bears single game record for receiving yards last week. He complained a bit about his role in the offense after that game and then blew up the following game. The squeaky wheel syndrome as some call it (me mainly) looked to work, but in reality he didn’t see any more targets than usual, he just played very well. Alshon Jeffery had a down game, just catching one of five targets, but he was very close to having a much bigger game on a few of those long passes on which he had a step. So I’m taking this game as affirmation that both have good upside, but Marshall is still the go to guy.

Martellus Bennett had a productive game in which he caught six of seven targets for 68 yards, with five of those receptions going for first downs. Of course that matters little in fantasyland, but maybe it should. He also hasn’t seen the end zone after catching three touchdowns in the first two weeks. He had four red zone targets in those two games and six over the last four. That’s actually pretty good, so I’m not too worried. He’ll find the end zone more going forward.

Matt Forte had another good game, but his three touchdowns on the season are a little disappointing. But we knew from the start that he wasn’t going to lead teams to victory through touchdowns. He’s fourth in total yards for running backs and second in receptions. That’s where he butters his biscuit.

This game didn’t go like many fantasy players had hoped as Tony Romo finished with less fantasy points than Matt Flynn did when he faced Washington. With two rushing touchdowns (one for DeMarco Murray who was later injured and one for his backup Joseph Randle) and a punt return touchdown from Dwayne Harris, there just weren’t many fantasy points to go around.

Cole Beasley saw his most work of the season as Washington did their best to take the deep pass away. This allowed for the Cowboys to run the ball and complete shorter passes, but slowed down the passing game. Terrance Williams caught Romo's lone touchdown pass and saw two more snaps than Miles Austin. Then after the game Coach Garrett wasn't happy with how Austin looked coming off his hamstring injury. Nothing is set in stone, but I think Williams gives them the best chance to win and we may be seeing a changing of the guard.

With Calvin Johnson hurting and having his snaps limited (39-of-76), Kris Durham once again saw a healthy number of targets and this time he caught quite a few of them, 8-of-13 for 83 yards to be exact. But Reggie Bush was again the catalyst for the offense as he totaled 135 yards and a touchdown.

The finisher for the day was Big Joe Fauria. At six foot seven, 255 pounds, he is quite a large target in the red zone. And with Tony Scheffler out for this game, Fauria saw the most snaps of his young career, 29, but only had three targets, which he caught for three touchdowns. The thing is, each target was contested and Fauria went up and made great catches on all three. The guy can play football and we know what Brandon Pettigrew and Tony Scheffler can do, so I sure hope we continue to see Fauria see time on the field.

The Packers came out on top in this one, but lost their number one targeted receiver in the process. Aaron Rodgers saved his day and the game with a beautiful touchdown pass to Jordy Nelson, but for the most part this game was ugly and injury riddled for the Packers. The true star was Eddie Lacy who rushed 23 times for 120 yards against a stout Ravens defense. With Randall Cobb out until Week 15, Lacy is going to be called on to produce.

Once Cobb and James Jones went down it became Jarrett Boykin’s job as he had six targets and saw 58-of-69 snaps. Unfortunately it didn’t go too well as he had a couple bad drops and caught just one of his six targets. Hopefully the stage won’t be too big for him next week with a week of practice and knowing he’s going to be counted on.

The Vikings barely showed up to their 35-10 beat down at home from the Panthers in Week 6. It was a poor display by the home team led by interim quarterback Matt Cassel, who didn’t look like he really wanted to be there. And with Josh Freeman most likely starting next week, the target numbers aren’t that indicative as to what will happen from here on out.

It was good to see Kyle Rudolph get the most targets he’s had this season, including a garbage time touchdown. Amazingly his nine receptions for 97 yards were two more receptions and 30 more yards than he’s ever had in a game.

The Patriots matched their big shutdown corner Aqib Talib against the Saints big offensive machine Jimmy Graham and Talib won. This was Graham’s first catchless game since his rookie season.

Drew Brees was uncharacteristically error prone on many throws in this game despite not getting much pressure. He completed just 17-of-36 passes, which is less than 50% and Brees has only had a completion percentage of less than 50% four other times in his 176 games played.

After averaging over seven targets per game through the first four, Marques Colston has averaged just 2.5 over the last two. I will be interested to see how they handle him after the bye when they take on Buffalo at home. That would be a great time to get him back involved, but if they don’t, I’m ready to run away.

This was yet another erratic performance from Eli Manning as he completed just 14-of-26 passes for 239 yards, one touchdown and three interceptions. With all three receivers healthy, predicting each individual’s production has become tough, especially with Manning throwing so many interceptions. All three topped 68 yards and none topped 75, while Rueben Randle got the lone touchdown. Hakeem Nicks led the way with eight targets, but it didn’t help him move ahead of the rest in production.

Brandon Jacobs was the big fantasy winner this week with 22 carries for 106 yards and two touchdowns. His offensive line created some Mack truck sized holes that allowed him to get a head of steam going. Without those lanes Jacobs just doesn’t have the speed or elusiveness anymore to make defenders miss.

Against Tampa Bay Zach Ertz saw 62% of the snaps and six targets, both were his most on the season. He only caught three targets for 13 yards, but it is still significant, especially since Brent Celek saw just one target and his percentage of snaps drop to its lowest on the season.

DeSean Jackson, Riley Cooper, Jason Avant and Ertz all had six targets, but Cooper and Jackson were the real stars in this one. Together they caught 10 passes for 184 yards and three touchdowns. This was another day at the office for Jackson, but Cooper has been pretty horrible up until this game. He had just eight receptions for 93 yards in the five previous games. It is most likely not a sign of things to come, but he did make some nice receptions and yards after the catch. This kind of game could at least help motivate his play a bit.

LeSean McCoy continues to put up big numbers. He totaled 171 yards on 27 touches and leads the league in total yardage averaging 145 yards per game. That puts him on pace for 2,323 yards this season. That would put him in some pretty lofty company at the end of the year if he can keep the pace and what a pace it is.

It’s good to see Vernon Davis back to full health and Colin Kaepernick throwing the deep ball again. Davis caught 8 of his 11 targets for 180 yards and two touchdowns. For the season he’s had three strong games, one dud against Seattle in which every 49ers player had a dud and a game he hurt his hamstring in, then he missed a game and then played a game at less than 100% and still managed a touchdown. On the whole it’s not hard to say Davis is having a pretty amazing season despite his injury. And with Anquan Boldin playing a little more like we expected (averaging 3.2 receptions for 42.6 yards and .2 touchdowns in the five games since his huge Week 1) Davis is by far the best receiver on the team. The only worry of course is that he’ll start to see increased coverage, but the targets should be there.

Frank Gore continues to play very well, but isn’t getting work in the passing game and continues to lose touchdowns to his running back mates. Kendall Hunter has three over the last four games on just 23 carries and Anthony Dixon has two over the last three weeks on 11 carries, while Gore has three all season. If you look at carries inside the opponents’ five-yard line, Dixon has five carries to Gore’s four and both have two touchdowns. Kendall Hunter’s touchdowns have come from further out.

Russell Wilson had one of his better games this season even though he didn’t record a touchdown. According to Pro Football Focus on his 23-of-31 passing, he only missed on four aimed passes. After that it was all about getting the ball to Marshawn Lynch.

Lynch had 25 touches for 155 yards and two touchdowns. He averaged 2.8 yards after contact and forced six missed tackles. He truly is a one-man team sometimes.

Golden Tate has pulled ahead in the target race and has three five reception games out of the last four, but only one touchdown on the season and he has failed to reach 33+ yards in half of his games.

Tavon Austin played four snaps in this one, so unless you are in a deep league it may be time to cut bait. He’s not going away, but they just went into Houston and beat up on the Texans without him.

Jared Cook also saw a decrease in snaps as he played just 29-of-47 snaps and had two targets. This wasn’t a passing fest by any means, with Sam Bradford only throwing the ball 16 times and Zac Stacy running it 18 times. The Rams defense scored two touchdowns, so there wasn’t much need for offense in this one.

Under new quarterback Mike Glennon your target leaders are Vincent Jackson (25), Tim Wright (15), Kevin Ogletree (9), Doug Martin (8), Mike Williams (6), Tiquan Underwood (4) and then some other dudes. Of course with Mike Williams missing the Philadelphia game, these numbers are skewed. Oh, and Ogletree doesn’t play for them anymore. But the eye popper here was tight end Tim Wright’s 15 targets, which translated into 12 receptions for 132 yards. He is a converted wide receiver, but at 6’4”, 220 pounds and a 4.6 40 time, he fits the mold of a tight end. Glennon and Wright got to know each other well on the second team and now Glennon is looking for him often. Of course the return of Mike Williams hurts his upside going forward, but I like his game.

Pierre Garcon is averaging 11.8 targets per game, which is only behind Justin Blackmon, who has only played two games. Robert Griffin trusts him more than any other receiver and it’s been that way in every game they’ve ever played together. The problem in this game was Griffin’s inaccuracy. He was only able to complete 19 passes on 39 attempts. So with Garcon’s 15 targets, he only caught six for 69 yards. The only good thing to really come from his performance was his mobility, as he ran for 77 yards on nine carries.